9/20-21 Athens to CHANIA

9/20-21---Thursday & Friday Athens to Chania Took a walk around the area in the morning. Took a bus over to Piraeus to catch the Ferry to Crete. It didn’t sail until after 9pm, but they let us on about 4pm. The facilities weren’t bad, they even had a small basket of fresh fruit and some chocolates in our room. We enjoyed being on the deck before sailing. We had a bit of rain, a little thunder and some lightning. It was dark for the whole crossing and we didn’t sleep too well, We arrived at Souda around 6am, then we were bussed to Chania about a 25 minute bus ride. We got off somewhere in town….we really didn’t know which stop to get off and we didn’t have hotel reservations. It was about 7 in the morning and there was a nice pastry shop where we got some coffee, too. As it got lighter we walked a while, we hoped in the right direction. We did, and found the Hotel Arkadi. It was on the edge of the old town, within walking distance of everything. It was clean and comfortable and provided a very nice continental breakfast.

For dinner we sat at a table next to an old vine covered wall looking out over tables towards an old venetian stone wall. There seemed to be a residence behind the walls. There was a turquoise colored iron gate with a calico cat sitting hunched behind the gate. Above the wall was a beautiful bougainvillea in bloom along with cactus and other vines. There was a very nice track of music flowing out from behind us---a very romantic setting indeed. After ordering a platter of mezedes (Greek appetizers) for two (which looked like it could feed at least four) a group of mostly blonde Northern Europeans chose to take up residence at the restaurant. There were at least 10 adults and 8 children ranging from 18 months to 8 years of age. Ray and I looked at each other and said, "here goes the romance". The waiter who had little to do before their arrival suddenly had lots to do. After a bit, they all got settled down. The children ran around a lot, but didn't bother anyone really. Other people came and by the time we left there were others waiting to be seated. This was about 8:30pm. We went back to the Arkadi Hotel and slept until 7am. We both felt restored.